The Social Life of Animal Farm through Robert Escarpit’s Sociology of Literature

This study examines how institutions shaped the production, distribution, and consumption of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Using Robert Escarpit’s sociology of literature, it conducts a qualitative documentary analysis of reproduced correspondence, authorial essays, contemporary criticism, bibliographical records, educational documents, and relevant scholarship. The analysis concentrates on publication and early circulation in 1944–1954, with selected later examples of translation and educational use. Publisher rejection reveals the interaction of literary judgment and political acceptability; Cold War adaptation shows how sponsorship could reshape the work circulating to audiences. Reception evidence demonstrates disagreement among interpreters, while examination documents establish institutional use rather than uniform reader responses. The findings suggest that literary persistence depends on repeated institutional selection and reinterpretation across the three processes. The study contributes an integrated account of these relationships while acknowledging the absence of representative readership data and comprehensive sales records.